Do you remember those drawings of our preliminary design for Dreamhamar project? And how Stortorget Square, the main public square in Hamar, was represented as a flexible and dynamic place for public events, concerts and gatherings?

Well, as many of our readers may know, after that initial phase we developed a complex participatory process (narrated in detail in our publication Dreamhamar – a network design process for collectively reimagining public space), that led to the urban design we finalized in 2012. The final spatial configuration of the main public space of Hamar is characterized by the presence of the Social Ring, an arena used as an ice skating area during the winter and as stage/meeting area/urban beach during the summer.

Since its construction was accomplished, Stortorget square fulfills its role as the main center of the urban life in the city. The Social Ring has truly become a landmark for Hamar and we are so pleased to discover at Stortorget’s Facebook page a great number of pictures showing so many different uses and users enjoying this reconquered public space.

Picture: Thomas Tapani Härkönen – from Facebook

Even if during last years Stortorget square hosted events of different kinds targeted at different social groups, satisfying the interests of many (kids playing gymnastics, classic music passionates, bikers, ice-skaters, Christmas tree lovers, etc…) without any doubt one of the most acclaimed event took place last August, gathering more than 8.000 people and completely filling the square at its maximum capacity.

On August 6th 2016 the concert of the world’s famous musician Sting took place at Stortorget. Local newspapers reported that it was a great success, and honestly, looking at the pictures it really seems so. We are so happy that one of our most loved public spaces, conceived with locals to be transformed into an icon of new ways of making urbanism, gained this visibility, not only because of the features of the place itself, but also for the importance of the event it hosted, becoming known to a larger audience.

Stortorget Square on the day of Sting’s concert. Source: http://www.h-a.no

Last February we were invited by the Art Institute of Chicago, the second largest museum of United States after the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to participate in the exhibition Chatter: Architecture Talks Back, an exhibition curated by Karen Kice and Iker Gil. The exhibition explores the new possibilities that technology offers to communication in architecture, aiming to establish an ideal dialogue between architecture’s present and past. The thesis of the exhibition is that Chatter is the new way for architects to communicate their ideas; social media as Twitter and Instagram are nowadays working tools for architects to produce and present their work. The exhibition focuses on the creative process of some international architectural firms, such as: Bureau Spectacular, Erin Besler, Fake Industries Architectural Agonism, Formlessfinder, and John Szot Studio; and highlights how they conceive new designs and ideas that reflect upon and expand the legacy of their field.

In this framework we were invited to exhibit our project Dreamhamar in the Gallery 283, in the section curated by Iker Gil, Director of the design publication Mas Context. In this part of the exhibition, that explores the multiple ways in which architecture can be communicated, our work represented the section “Empowering”, one of the concepts used to support the thesis of this section, together with others as “Challenging”, “Satirical”, “Collective”, “Revealing” and “Diagnostic“.

Photo: David Schalliol

Photo: David Schalliol

The projects presented in this space were produced by a range of practitioners worldwide: Ecosistema Urbano; over, under and pinkcomma; Mimi Zeiger and Neil Donnelly with the School of Visual Arts Summer Design Writing and Research Intensive; Koldo Lus Arana (Klaus); Project_ with Sarah Hirschman; 300.000km/s with Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona; Luis Úrculo; and Christopher Baker.

Photo: David Schalliol

Photo: David Schalliol

If you are planning to go to Chicago, don’t miss it! It will be open from April 11th, 2015, through July 12th, 2015 in the Architecture and Design galleries in the museum’s Modern Wing.

This week we come with some good news in a row! Some days ago, we were notified that our project dreamhamar has been awarded as BEST PRACTICE by the UN at the Dubai 2014 International Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment.

The Spanish submissions to this award have been highly appreciated: 62 of them were labelled as GOOD practices, 17 as BEST practices and 2 selected for the international AWARD.

Belinda Tato will be lecturing next Thursday, September 11 at the USF Verftet cultural centre in Bergen, Norway, together with 8 other speakers.

The conference, organized by the National Association of Norwegian Architects, will explore the relations between the cities, the suburbs and the rural areas, trying to gather insights on how to make them more productive, locally driven and sustainable while preserving Norway’s own character and exploring new lifestyles.

Today we are sharing with you some pictures of the impressive exhibition Importing Architecture which is on right now at the Nasjonalmuseet (National Museum for Art and Architecture) in Oslo.

We had the pleasure to be included in the selection and it was a great opportunity to attend the opening last November and get a chance to know more about the different projects which are under construction or have been just finished as well as the international offices who are behind them.

The exhibition raises the question of Norwegian identity in architecture and how ‘imported architects’ respond to it:

Are foreign architects reinforcing the trend toward a type of globalization that is dissolving national and cultural differences? Or are they even more concerned with formulating a Nordic or Norwegian identity than their Norwegian counterparts? Is it possible for an architect to create exceptional architecture in Norway without first-hand experience of Norwegian society, building traditions, climate or the natural environment? Or on the contrary, do foreign architects bring new ideas and ways of thinking that enrich the quality of Norwegian architecture?

Our installation is located by the ramp at the entrance of the exhibition. We tried to take advantage of the windows to display images of the Dreamhamarproject, along with four screens showing videos from the process. The physical-digital scale model of Stortorget (Main Square) was also brought from Hamar and installed on top of a vinyl that covers the floor resembling the pattern painted by Boamistura on the asphalt of the real square.